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SETTLEMENT 



AND 



EARLY HISTORY OF ALBANY; 



A PRIZE ESSAY, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S ASSOCIATION, 



DECEMBER 26, 1850. 



BY WILLIAM BARNES* ESQ. 



ALBANY: 

GOULD, BANKS & GOULD. 

1851. 



HISTORY OF ALBANY. 



No city in the United States is more fruitful of historic interest 
than Albany. Not so, by some one great event, which will stand 
forever as a beacon light in the path of Time, illumining as 
with a petrified brightness the place of its occurrence; but, by 
the numberless events, and early and interesting associations, 
clustering in every half century of its existence. 

It is not a spirit at war with the genius of republican institu- 
tions, which inclines us to muse on the history of our own city, 
and recount with pride and admiration the incidents of its early 
annals, and the scenes of its younger days; nor, to my notion, is 
it reprehensible to look back with the same feeling to the noble 
deeds and exalted worth of our ancestors, if we draw from the 
retrospect, not a false estimate of superiority in ourselves, but 
only deeper and more powerful incentives to become worthy of 
such ancestry. The connection of the past with the present, of 
the present with the future, form some of the noblest motives to 
human exertion, and some of the most powerful restraints to the 
commission of crime; and a due consideration of their relation to 
each other, constitutes the distinguishing characteristic of the 
wise and great. An intimate or even general knowledge of the 
early history of our own city, disseminated more widely among 
its inhabitants, would be a source of pure and exalted enjoyment, 
and might arouse in some stoical heart that Albanian pride, so 
justly the property of our citizens, but which we have only slightly 
cultivated. 

American History, unlike European and Asiatic, contains the 
records of only two hundred and fifty years. It bears not upon 



its pages the mystic annals of China and of Egypt, of Greece 
and of Rome. We can date our origin — the settlement of every 
city, village and hamlet; and oftentimes the memory of the 
" oldest inhabitant " of some great and crowded emporium con- 
tains the complete record of its foundation, growth and maturity. 
We can claim for Albany an older date than that of our great 
commercial metropolis, and that, next to Jamestown in Virginia, 
it is the oldest city in the United States. 

After the discovery of America by Columbus, European enter- 
prise was directed to this continent, as the California of those 
days; and the mystery and uncertainty of its true wealth, extent 
and fertility, added greatly to the excitement consequent on its 
discovery. 

In the early part of the seventeenth century, the Dutch esta- 
blished trading houses near the present cities of New-York and 
Albany. In September, 1609, the immortal Hendrick Hudson, 
in the ship " Half Moon," made his memorable voyage up our 
noble river which bears his name : a part of the crew of this 
vessel w r ere the first white men that ever saw the site of our 
present goodly city. Its hills were then covered with the pine, 
the maple, the oak and the elm ; while through the valleys flowed 
the Ruttenkill and Foxenkill, and on the outskirts ran the noisy 
waters of the Beaverkill and Patroon's creek. The wild vine 
clambered in rich luxuriance on the forest trees, and threw its 
graceful festoons from the mossy banks of the river. The slender 
deer bounded undisturbed through the tangled thickets, or bent 
his antlered head to drink from the limpid streams that crossed 
his path. The beaver sported unmolested in the bright waters, 
which are now doomed to the darkness and gloom of a subterra- 
nean passage to the river; and slept in conscious security on the 
low grounds of the southern and eastern portions of the city, 
where now the elegant stores and stately residences of our citizens 
have obliterated all traces of his patient industry. Where now 
the hum of busy thousands attests the mart of commerce, industry 
and enterprise — silence reigned supreme. Could the immortal 
Hendrick have slept, the fabled sleep which the genius of Irving 



has interwoven with the banks of the Hudson, and beheld, on his 
awaking at the present day, our venerated city as it now stands, 
his bewildered memory could have scarcely recalled the fact of 
its primitive solitude. 

I have many times thought that the greatest blessing Deity 
could vouchsafe to mortals, would be the privilege of revisiting, 
in after centuries, the scenes of our lifetime labors and discoveries; 
but ever as I ponder on that ecstatic bliss, the thought recurs, 
that were it permitted us, Americans, to behold the sites of our 
dwellings, farms, villages and cities, before the white man's foot 
had touched these shores, that such a scene would be equally 
enchanting. It would be interesting to know what chief raised 
his rude wigwam on " the Hill " where stands the Capitol, 
second only in importance to that which rears its head at Wa- 
shington. We would know his life, his oratory, his adventures, 
his battles, and his death; whether also on that Hili, at any time, 
Indian sachems conferred in council, or Indian warriors sounded 
their terrific war-whoop, and fought and died in battle. W T e 
would also know of the gentler partner of his wild-wood home; 
of the mingled romance and reality of her life and her religion, 
and her patient endurance of hardships and fatigues, which would 
blanch the cheek and chill the blood of our modern fair. We 
would know if their soothsayers ever predicted anything of the 
utter destruction that has fallen upon their race, and the power, 
and strength, and skill of the white men who have supplanted 
them. We would know how those Romans of the New World, 
the fearless Iroquois, held the whole northern country in subjec- 
tion to their despotic sway; whether it was bravery, or wisdom, 
or oratory, or all of these combined, which gave them their ac- 
knowledged supremacy and terrible power. The unwritten pages 
of Indian history would form volumes of thrilling interest to the 
world; but there are no landmarks in the darkness of their Past, 
and the simple aborigines lived and died, but gave no sign, save 
now and then, when an earnest antiquarian enters upon the broad 
field of conjecture, and strives to rescue from oblivion the rude 
hieroglyphics that lie buried in the red man's grave. 



We leave this speculative ground, for the real and authentic 
history of Albany. 

Hendrick Hudson had been despatched from Holland in the 
vessel " Half Moon," by the Dutch East India Company, to 
search for a northwest passage to India and China, which at this 
time was attracting the attention of the scientific men of Europe. 
In coasting along the American shore, he entered the bay of the 
Manhattes, or New- York; and, attracted by the beauty of the 
banks of the Cohotatea, as the river was called by the natives, 
and in the hope of finding the long sought for passage, he as- 
cended to the head of navigation for vessels of the tonnage of the 
Half Moon, near the present city of Hudson, and despatched 
Robert Juet, the mate and four sailors, up the stream as far as 
Albany. Not finding any passage to China, probably for the 
reason that he did not go up as far as our neighboring city, and 
seek a route " via Troy,''' he returned to Europe. 

The Half Moon, after some detention in England, sailed for 
Holland, with the interesting tidings of Hudson's discoveries. 
He, however, was prevented from leaving, by the English au- 
thorities, who began to grow jealous of the maritime enterprises 
of the Dutch. Of his history little is known. He was an En- 
glishman by birth. Soon after this voyage, he made another in 
the service of the London Company, to the northern part of this 
continent, where success again rewarded him by the discovery of 
the large Bay which is also called by his name. On his return 
voyage, a mutiny broke out among the ship's crew; and he, with 
several of his sailors, was placed in a small boat and set adrift 
upon the waste of waters. It is probable that he died of starva- 
tion; or, pjsrhaps, to avert the terrors of such an agonizing death, 
voluntarily sought his grave, and sleeps beneath the waters of 
that ocean which once bore him proudly on to the scene of his 
future fame and immortality. 

The announcement of Hudson's jdiscoveries aroused the enter- 
prise of the merchants of the United Provinces of the Nether- 
lands; and several ships were despatched to the Island of Man- 
hattan, to trade with the Indians. An ordinance or Octroy was 



passed on the twenty-seventh day of March 1614, by the States 
General, giving to the first discoverers " of any new courses, 
havens, countries or places," being inhabitants of the United 
Netherlands, the exclusive right and privilege of making the first 
four voyages to such places so discovered. The Netherlands were 
at this time the first maritime power of Europe, and Amsterdam 
was the commercial capital of the world ; her citizens had amassed 
their wealth upon the seas, and her merchant princes claimed an 
equality with the aristocracy and nobility of Europe. The in- 
dependence of the Provinces had been virtually wrenched from 
the haughty Philip of Spain; and Prince Maurice — the Wa- 
shington of the Dutch — was acknowledged one of the greatest 
generals of the age. During the war against the combined forces 
of England and France, London itself, while ridiculing the Dutch 
admirals, trembled for its very existence. With their govern- 
ment was also mixed the leaven of Republicanism — always a 
source of activity and enterprise, and adding incalculably to the 
effective power of a nation. The Republic had been ushered into 
existence by its hatred of Spanish oppression and the Spanish 
Inquisition. It felt all the energies of a youthful nation that had 
bought its religious and political independence by its own in- 
herent bravery and valor. 

We may perhaps be amused at the ridicule some writers have 
seen fit to bestow upon the eccentricities of our Dutch ancestry; 
but the genius of such persons might have been more worthily 
employed in caricaturing vice and immorality, and ministering to 
our lower faculties only to effect some exalted and elevated pur- 
pose. Surely no one in whose veins runs the blood of the Puri- 
tans, can forget the land and the race that afforded them shelter 
and protection from British intolerance and persecution. We 
would do well to remember that in Politics, Jurisprudence, 
Medicine, Theology, the Arts, and in land and naval warfare, 
Holland can boast of such names as De Witt, Barneveldt, Gro- 
tius, Boerhaave, Erasmus, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyke, 
Prince Maurice, De Ruyter, and Van Tromp; a constellation of 
genius unequalled at this period in any other nation of the world. 



Immediately after the passage of the Octroy of March 1614, 
several Amsterdam and Hoorn merchants despatched five ships 
on voyages of exploration and discovery; threo of which were 
commanded by the eminent navigators Adriaen Block, Hendrick 
Corstiaensen and Cornelius Jacobsen Mey. They explored the 
American coast from Massachusetts Bay to Virginia, and gave 
names to the bays, islands, rivers, &c; and Skipper Hendricksen, 
upon whom the command of one of the ships devolved, on his 
return to Holland in 1616, presented to the States General a 
figurative map of his discoveries, which is the oldest chart of 
these countries known to exist. The original was found by Mr. 
Brodhead at the Hague in 1841, and a copy is published in 
O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland. 

On the eleventh day of October 1614, the States General 
granted to Gerrit Jacob Witsen and others, the enterprising 
merchants of Amsterdam and Hoorn above mentioned, a Charter, 
under the Octroy of March, conferring on them the exclusive 
privilege of trading to New Netherland, or the countries between 
New France and Virginia, for four voyages to be made within 
three years commencing on or before the first day of January 
1615. The company now assumed Ihe name of the United New 
Netherland Company; and in 1614, Hendrick Corstiaensen 
erected under the above grant a trading house on " the Island " 
below the site of our city, and nearly opposite the princely resi- 
dence of our respected townsman, E. P. Prentice, Esq., at Mount 
Hope. The trading house was 26 feet wide and 36 feet long, 
surrounded by a stockade 50 feet square and a moat 18 feet wide: 
two pieces of cannon and eleven stone guns were mounted for its 
defence, and it was garrisoned by ten or twelve men under the 
command of Corstiaensen and Jacob Jacobz Elkins. Here an 
extensive fur trade was opened and carried on with the Indians. 

The river was then generally called the Mauritius, or Prince 
Maurice's River, and was named after Maurice of Nassau, Prince 
of Orange, who, at the age of eighteen, on the murder of his 
father, succeeded to the government of the low countries, and 
became Captain General of the United States. He strengthened 



and confirmed the newly established Republic, by his wisdom and 
bravery, and enlarged its provinces and its fame by numerous 
conquests and splendid victories. The river was also called the 
Great North River of the New Netherlands by the Dutch settlers, 
in contradistinction from the South or Delaware River. This 
name, to some extent, it still retains. Hudson called it the 
Great River of the Mountains. In the journal of a French 
Jesuit (Father Jogues), written in 1646, it is called the Oiouge; 
but the natives at its mouth knew it as the Mohegan, but general- 
ly by the name of Manhattes, though among the Mohicans it 
received the title of Shatemuck. The Mohawks, however, graced 
it with the more euphonious and poetical name of Cohotatea. 

The fort on Castle Island is designated on the map of Skipper 
Hendricksen as Fort Nassau, but was also known by the name 
of the Kas-teel or Castle. It was never generally recognized 
as Fort JYassau ; another fort, bearing that name, having been 
erected shortly after on the South or Delaware river. 

In the spring of 1617, by the breaking up of the ice on the 
river, there was a heavy freshet; but at that time, the Dock and 
the Pier were not in a condition to receive much injury, though 
the small fort and trading house on the Island were nearly de- 
stroyed. The company therefore erected a new fort on the hill, 
called by the Indians Tawasgunshee, near the banks of the Nor- 
manskill, or Taicalsantha creek. The Normanskill was named 
after Albert Adriensen Bradt " de-noorman," or Northman, one 
of the early settlers at Rensselaerwyck. The Ruttenkill was 
named from Rutgers Bleecker, a proprietor of land adjoining it. 
He was probably the ancestor of the worthy Dutch family of that 
name, whose history is identified with that of Albany from its 
earliest existence. The five streams, from the Normanskill to 
Patroon's creek, were, however, at this period designated as the 
1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th kills. 

The exclusive privileges of the New Netherland Company 
having expired according to the terms of the grant in January 
1618, the country was open to individual enterprise; but the 
original company, by their old and well-founded establishments 



8 

and knowledge of the trade, still retained control of the greater 
portion of the traffic until 1621. The same year, the Dutch 
made a solemn alliance and treaty of peace with the Five Na- 
tions, near the mouth of the Normanskill, and it was confirmed 
with great formality and ceremony. To the honor of the parties, 
be it said, it was never broken, so long as the Dutch retained 
their power in this state. 

On the third day of June 1621, the States General organized 
the West India Company, and granted it a Charter similar to 
the one granted to the East India Company; partly for commer- 
cial and in part for warlike purposes, as the twelve years truce 
with Spain had expired. To this company was given the ex- 
clusive privilege of trading and navigating to the coasts of Africa, 
North and South America and the West Indies, for a period of 
twenty -four years (which was subsequently extended); and they 
were empowered to found colonies, erect fortifications, make 
treaties, and possessed Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers 
over their colonies. The control of the Company was vested in 
five chambers of managers, styled " Lords Directors," at Amster- 
dam, Zealand, Maeze, North Holland and Friesland; and the 
general meeting of the chambers was composed of XIX delegates 
or directors, in whom was lodged the supreme power of the 
company, having authority even to declare war, subject to the 
approbation of their High Mightinesses the States General. The 
Government also gave them nearly half a million of dollars, and 
subscribed another half million to the stock of the company; and 
in case of war, were to assist them with a large naval force. 
The management of New Netherland was committed to the 
Amsterdam Chamber, which was the richest and most influential, 
appointing nine delegates to the Assembly of XIX. 

In 1623, the West India Company erected a Fort on the site of 
the old Fort Orange (now Phoenix) Hotel, in front of the present 
steamboat landing, and called it Fort Orange, in honor of Mau- 
rice, Prince of Orange. In March of this year, the company sent 
out a vessel of 260 tons, under the command of Captain Mey, 
with thirty families, principally Walloons. The Walloons were 
of French descent, and resided on the frontiers of Belgium and 



9 

France : they professed the reformed religion, and were dis- 
tinguished* for their bravery and valor. Some of their number 
settled at Fort Orange, for the purpose of colonizing the country 
and commencing farming operations. The Fort was then com- 
manded by Daniel Van Krieckebeeck, or Beeck. Little was 
done, however, towards the cultivation of the soil, the settlers 
engaging principally in traffic with the Indians. In 1626, there 
were but eight families resident here. 

It was during this year that the Maikans made war on the 
Maquaes, and asked the assistance of Commander Beeck, and six 
of his men. He accordingly went, with the required number, 
and met the enemy about a mile from the Fort. Commander 
Beeck, with three of his men, were slain, one of whom was 
roasted and eaten by the Indians ; whereupon all the families 
were ordered to leave Fort Orange, and sixteen men remained 
as a garrison. Soon after this occurrence, Pieter Barentsen, an 
Indian trader, arrived at the fort; and Director Minuit, who was 
the first director of the Company at Manhattan, ordered him to 
remain as commander. Two years after, the war between the 
Maikans and the Maquaes was renewed; the former were van- 
quished, and the remnant of their tribe, not captured, removed to 
the Connecticut or Fresh River. 

Barentsen, having returned to Holland, the command of the 
fort devolved upon Sebastian Jansen Krol. At this time, there 
were about twenty-five traders here. 

On the ninth day of September 1629, Admiral Pieter Pietersen 
Heyn achieved his brilliant victory in favor of the West India 
Company, against the Spanish " Plate.'* or, as it is more com- 
monly known, "Silver Fleet," of twenty sail; capturing the whole 
number, including a large quantity of gold and silver, and other 
spoil to the amount of 5,000,000 dollars. The impetus given to 
the affairs of the company by this unprecedented success, swelled 
their dividends to 50 per cent, and hastened the adoption of a 
system to colonize New Netherland on a more extensive scale 
than had hitherto been attempted. On the seventeenth day of 
June 1629, the Assembly of the XIX, attended by commissioners 
2 



10 

of the States General, passed the " Charter of Privileges and 
Exemptions." This document has ever since had an important 
bearing on the history of New-York, and is the primary and 
fruitful source of all the " anti-rent " disturbances that have re- 
cently agitated this State. It was strangely enough called a 
" Charter of Privileges" when, by it, the system of Patroonship 
and Feudalism was transplanted to our American shores. 

The Feudal System, either in its original form of military 
tenure, or with various modifications, prevailed at this period all 
over Europe. Never was a system devised, so well calculated 
for the prosperity of the nobility and aristocracy, and the op- 
pression, dependency and degradation of all other classes. By 
its adoption in New Netherland, the Dutch probably lost the 
territory, which, under a different system, they might have re- 
tained. Had the " boors " of the patroons been free men, it 
would have encouraged a more numerous emigration, and they 
would have felt a stronger interest in the government of their 
Fatherland, and never surrendered without resistance to the juris- 
diction of a foreign power. 

By this Charter, all persons, being members of the West India 
Company, who planted a colonie of fifty souls above the age of 
fifteen years, were to be acknowledged Patroons of New Nether- 
land. They were allowed to extend their boundaries sixteen 
miles on the shore of a navigable river, or eight miles on both 
sides; but the extent into the interior was unlimited. The con- 
sent of the Patroon, in writing, was necessary, in order that a 
colonist might leave a colonie; and after his term of service was 
fulfilled, he was compelled to return to Holland. The Patroons 
were to have a monopoly of fishing, hunting, and grinding, of all 
mines and minerals, and a pre-emption right of buying the co- 
lonists' surplus grain and cattle. The Patroons possessed the 
absolute title to the soil; and their courts had jurisdiction of ac- 
tions, subject to appeal, in cases of upwards of fifty guilders, to 
the Company's commander and council in New Netherland. The 
Patroons' courts had also jurisdiction in criminal cases, even to 
punishment by death; and in the colonie of Rensselaerwyck, an 



11 

agreement was required by the Patroon of every settler, not to 
appeal from the sentence of his courts. Private persons, how- 
ever, were allowed to settle and possess the lands they could 
properly improve, subject to the approbation of the director and 
council. 

On the eighteenth day of April 1630, Bastiaen Jansen Krol and 
Dirk Cornel issen Duyster, commissary and under-commissary at 
Fort Orange, purchased of the Indians a large tract of land lying 
below the Fort, and between Beeren and Smackx islands, for 
Killian Van Rensselaer, a pearl merchant of Amsterdam, and one 
of the home directors of the Company. In July of the same year, 
and also in April 1637, other purchases were made by him; so 
that the whole of his princely domain was forty-eight miles broad, 
and extended twenty-four miles on both sides of the river, reach- 
ing from Beeren island to Cahoos. In October 1630, Van Rens- 
selaer associated with himself Samuel Godyn, Johannes de Laet, 
Touissaint Moussart, Samuel Bloemmart, and Adam Bissels. 
Van Rensselaer was to remain sole Patroon, and the recipient of 
feudal rights and honors; but the association was divided into 
five shares, of which he held two, De Laet one, Godyn one, and 
the fifth share was divided among the remaining three. All the 
shares were, however, finally purchased, or extinguished by Van 
Rensselaer in 1685. 

Jacob Albertsen Planck was the first schout-fiscaal of Rens- 
selaerwyck. This office was the most influential one in the 
colonie; comprising in its character that of sheriff, district at- 
torney and attorney general, beside other duties peculiar to the 
system of patroonship. Arendt Van Curlear was appointed se- 
cretary, and superintendent of the colonie. He obtained such 
an influence over the Indians by his kindness, benevolence and 
integrity, that they ever after addressed the governors of New- 
York by the name of " Corlear;" a tribute to his memory, from 
the untutored savages, more glorious than monumental marble, 
or the praises of song. 

About the first of June 1630, a number of colonists, with their 
stock, farming implements, &c., arrived at Rensselaerwyck. 



12 

Other settlers followed; so that the conditions of the Charter of 
1629, as to the number of colonists, were fulfilled within the 
required period. The expenses of the first settlers were prin- 
cipally borne by the proprietors of the colonie. 

The Patroon claimed a monopoly of the fur trade; allowing- 
the colonists, however, to engage in the traffic, by dividing the 
profits. 

In 1633, an English ship, "The William," visited Fort Orange 
to trade with the Indians, and landed its cargo about a mile be- 
low the Fort. Director Van Twiller sent up three vessels from 
Fort Amsterdam ; and, with the assistance of the soldiers from 
the fort, they succeeded in taking it, and after convoying it down 
the Hudson, they ordered the Englishmen to leave the country. 

Eight small houses, and a large one " with balustrades," were 
erected this year at Fort Orange. A brewery was also built about 
this time. 

In 1634, the village began to assume a name independent of 
the Fort, and was called Beaverswyck, or Beaver's fuyck, or the 
Fuyck, so named from the crescent form of the bay at this place.* 
The inhabitants seem not to have turned their attention, in any 
great degree, toward agricultural pursuits : a few patches of 
maize or Indian corn, only, were cultivated about the Fort. Four 
years after, there were only some half dozen farms or "boneries" 
under tillage; the inhabitants generally being traders with the 
Indians, or officers and soldiers at the Fort. 

During the year 1638, Bastien Jansen Krol was commissary, 
and Adrien Dirksen assistant ; Dirk Stipel being the " wacht- 
meister" or commander of the Fort. The claim of the Patroon 
to the fur trade with the natives, led to a long controversy with 
the Director of the Company at Manhattan; but during this year 
it was settled, and a new impulse was given to the settlement of 
the country by a proclamation from the Amsterdam Chamber, 
opening the trade to all the inhabitants of the States, their allies 

* Mrs. Grant, in her Memoirs of an American Lady, says that Albany was 
called by the Dutch, at a subsequent period, " Oricnburgh." Among the 
French of Canada, it was also known by the name of " Orange." Washington 
Irving, in his History of New-York, calls it " Fort Aurania." 



13 

and friends; and the Director and Court at Fort Amsterdam were 
instructed to convey to every person all the lands he could pro- 
perly cultivate, subject to a payment to the company, after four 
years, of a tenth of the produce of the same. 

The controversies which had arisen between the Patroons and 
directors of the West India Company, as well as the amount of 
land acquired under the system of patroonship, caused the direc- 
tors to repurchase all the colonies that could be bought, and led 
to an alteration of the " Charter of Privileges and Exemptions." 

In the year 1640, the Charter was essentially modified : the 
right to become Patroons was not limited to members of the 
Company, but was extended to all citizens of New Netherland. 
The extent of future colonies was limited to three miles along the 
bank of a river, and six miles into the interior; and no colonie 
was allowed to be located on a river opposite a colonie. The 
Patroons were obliged to send over the fifty colonists in three 
years, instead of four; one-third annually. Any person who 
should send over five colonists above fifteen years of age, Was 
constituted a " master," and allowed the privilege of hunting 
and fishing in the public streams. The privileges as to trade and 
commerce, granted to the Patroons by the charter of 1629, were 
extended to all free colonists and inhabitants of New Netherland, 
subject to an import tax of 5 and an export duty of 10 per cent, 
and the prohibition of manufactures in the colonies was also 
abolished. This Charter w~as again somewhat modified in 1650. 

In the same year ( 1640), the Patroon appointed Adrien van 
der Donck, a graduate from the University of Leyden, schout- 
fiscaal for Rensselaerwyck. He remained eight years in this 
country; and, on his return to Holland, published a description 
of the New Netherlands, a copy of which can be found in the 
collections of the New-York Historical Society. 

Two years after the appointment of Van der Donck, the Pa- 
troon sent to the colony of Rensselaerwyck the Rev. Johannes 
Megapolensis, " the pious and well learned minister of the con- 
gregation of Schoorel and Berge." He was the first clergyman 
ever located here. The next year a church was erected for his 



14 

accommodation, back of the fort, near what is still called 
"Church street." It was 19 feet wide and 34 feet long, rudely 
constructed, and contained nine benches for the congregation. 
This building was occupied until 1656, when a new one was 
erected in the centre of the street, at the intersection of what is 
now Broadway and State streets. This place of worship, after 
being rebuilt in 1715, was used until 1805, when it was torn 
down, and the land purchased by the city. The stone step for- 
merly at the vestibule of the church, has, by mistake, been re- 
cently removed from its old location; but ere long, we trust it 
will be returned, and that the liberality of our city will protect 
this sacred relic of its earlier days by an appropriate railing and 
inscription, that it may not be daily profaned by the track of the 
passing vehicle, and the tread of the busy multitude. 

In 1642, a ferry was established between Beaverswyck and 
" Tuscameatic," as Greenbush was then called by the Indians. 
Its present appellation is derived from the Dutch, " Het Green 
Bosch," or " The Pine Woods." This ferry has now been in 
operation, in the same place, for 20S years, and is therefore the 
oldest ferry in the United States. 

The year following, Van Rensselaer erected a Fort and trading 
house on Beeren island, which is south of Coeymans landing. It 
was built for the purpose of protecting the colonie, and to exclude 
from the river private traders, who had encroached on the fur 
trade to a ruinous extent. It was called by the high sounding 
name of " Rensselaer stein" or Rensselaer's Castle; and Nicholas 
Coorn was appointed " wacht-meister." The raising of this Fort, 
and the exaction of staple-right or toll on all vessels excepting 
those belonging to the West India Company, and the lordly pre- 
tensions of Killian Van Rensselaer, caused a sharp and bitter 
controversy between the Directors at Fort Amsterdam, and the 
Patroon. 

The winter of 1647 was one of the coldest ever known. The 
river was frozen as early as the twenty-fifth of November, and 
remained thus four months : in the spring, a destructive freshet 
succeeded, which materially injured the Fort, and otherwise da- 



15 

maged Beaverswyck. It was during this spring that two whales, 
inspired probably with the spirit of discovery, came up the river 
as far as this place, filling the inhabitants with extreme terror. 
One of these sea-monsters penetrated as far as the Mohawk river, 
where it stranded on an island, and was soon despatched by the 
inhabitants, who roasted it, and obtained large quantities of oil. 
The river presented a singular appearance for nearly a fortnight, 
in consequence of the oil which floated down the stream.* 

Killian Van Rensselaer died in 1646, and Johannes Van Rens- 
selaer succeeded him as Patroon of Rensselaerwyck. At the 
time of his father's death he was a minor, and his uncle Johannes 
Van Wely and Wouter Van Twiller were made executors and 
guardians of his estate. Brandt Arent von Slechtenhorst was 
appointed Director of the colonic In 1648, Peter Stuyvesant 
was Director of New Netherlands; and in accordance with home 
instructions, he undertook to circumscribe the limits and weaken 
the power of the Patroon of Rensselaerwyck. Stuyvesant in- 
sisted that Rensselaerwyck was within the jurisdiction of New 
Amsterdam. Slechtenhorst denied this, and insisted on all the 
claims of feudalism, over the patroonship granted by the charter 
of 1629, and by the civil or Roman law, and also by the usages 
and customs of the Fatherland. Both were high-tempered, ir- 
ritable, and headstrong men. Stuyvesant sent several proclama- 
tions to Fort Orange, which were met by the Patroon's Director 
with counter proclamations. Stuyvesant claimed a tax and excise 
duty from the colonists at Rensselaerwyck; and also that the 
inhabitants of Beaverswyck were privileged to trade in furs, and 
cut timber and firewood on the unoccupied lands of the colonic. 
He asserted that the Patroon could hold only eight miles on both 
sides of the river, and that he was compelled to locate this part, 
and surrender the residue of his twenty-four miles. He com- 
plained also that the Patroon had violated the Charter of 1629, 
by exacting from the colonists an agreement not to appeal from 

* This maybe considered a rather large "fish story" for the veracity of 
" Sturgeondom;" but the facts are well attested by Van der Donck, and other 
reliable records of that period. 



16 

the decisions of his courts. The boundaries were indefinite be- 
tween Fort Orange and the colonie, and Stuyvesant forbid all 
building by the Patroon within cannon shot of the Fort. All the 
houses erected at this time nestled closely under the guns of the 
Fort, for protection from the Indians, who had made war on the 
settlements and colonies at New Amsterdam, destroyed many 
villages, and materially injured the prosperity of the country. 

Stuyvesant visited Fort Orange with a military escort, to settle 
the difficulties; but all negotiations between the contending par- 
ties were of no avail. He returned to New Amsterdam, and sent 
up six soldiers to demolish the trading house of the Patroon near 
the Fort. This order, however, was not carried into effect. 

hi 1649, Von Slechtenhorst purchased for the Patroon a large 
tract of land near Kaatskill, and leased it to his tenants. This 
caused auother protest from Stuyvesant. In Holland, Van Twil- 
ler was claiming for the Patroon the exclusive right of navigating 
the Hudson, and even the land on which Fort Orange stood; as- 
serting that the colonie of Rensselaerwyck extended from Beeren 
island to the Cahoos, and included Beaverswyck as well as Fort 
Orange. 

While matters were in this state, the Amsterdam Chamber sent 
over an order to the Director to demolish, by force of arms, if 
necessary, the Patroon's Fort on Beeren island. Difficulties still 
multiplied. Stuyvesant demanded the excise on beer manufac- 
tured at Rensselaerwyck, and levied a subsidy on the colonie. 
Both of these demands were resisted by Slechtenhorst, and he 
visited New Amsterdam to protest against such proceedings, when 
he was imprisoned for four months by the Director, but, at the 
end of tli is time, managed to make his escape to Fort Orange. 
The Patroon's house at this place was assaulted soon after by the 
soldiers, and personal violence, offered to Slechtenhorst's son. 

In February 1652, Stuyvesant sent up proclamations, defining 
the limits of Fort Orauge and Beaverswyck; and directed Jo- 
hannes Dyckman, the Company's commissary, to publish the 
same. He took the placards, and came to the court, where the 
magistrates of the colonie were in session, and attempted to stop 



17 

the proceedings, for the purpose of proclaiming them; when Von 
Slechtenhorst snatched them from his hands, and lore off the seals. 
Another placard was sent up soon after, and the bounds of Bea- 
verswyck were staked out; hut the constable of the colonie tore 
them down, and a remonstrance was prepared and sent to New 
Amsterdam. 

A few months after this, Stuyvesant again visited Rensselaer- 
wyck, and, on his arrival, sent a party of soldiers to the Pitroon's 
house, with orders to Von Slechtenhorst to strike the Patroon's 
flag; which he indignantly refused to do. The soldiers there- 
upon entered the house, and, lowering the proud colors of the 
feudal lord, they conveyed Von Slechtenhorst a civil prisoner to 
New Amsterdam. Thus was the land on which our city stands, 
rescued from the feudal tenure of patroonship, by the quarrels of 
the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company with the 
Patroon. 

On the tenth of April 1652, Stuyvesant issued a proclamation, 
constituting a court at Beaverswyck, independent of Rensselaer- 
wyck. This was the first court established at Albany. 

The whole controversy was finally brought before the States 
General for adjudication; and in 1673, after New Netherland 
had been taken by the English, and retaken for a short period by 
the Dutch, Beaverswyck, or Willemstadt as it was then called, 
was ordered to be restored to the Patroon. The same order was 
made by the Duke of York's law council in England, and Sir 
Edmund Andross was instructed to deliver up the village to the 
Patroon; and the Patroon was authorised to levy a tax of two 
beavers on each dwelling house for thirty years, and afterwards 
to such an amount as the inhabitants should agree for with the 
Patroon. Andross, however, never fulfilled this order. Governor 
Dongan also refused to fulfil this decision; judging " it not for his 
Ma'ty's interest that the second town of the government, which 
brings his Ma'ty soe great a revenue, should be in the hands of 
any particular man:" but in 1686, when the city of Albany was 
incorporated, he obtained a release from the Patroon of his 
pretended rights. 

3 



18 

The first of the Patroon's family that ever visited this country, 
was Jean Baptiste Van Rensselaer, who succeeded Von Slechten- 
horst as Director of Rensselaerwyck. In June 1655, Commissary 
Dyckman having become insane, the office of vice-director at 
Beaverswyck was given to Johannes de Decker. In the fall of 
the year, Father le Moyne, a French Jesuit, visited Fort Orange; 
and soon after, a party of 100 Mohawk warriors stopped here, on 
their way to Canada to fight with the French, and solicited the 
Dutch to remain neutral in the contest. This the magistrates 
agreed to do. Johannes la Montaigne succeeded de Decker as 
vice-director of Beaverswyck. 

The court house at this time was within the Fort, and in the 
second story of a house built of boards, with the roof shaped 
like a " pavillion." No massive marble steps, worn and in- 
dented by the tread of busy feet, made the ascent to the temple 
of the " blind Goddess" easy and delightful, to the few citizens 
who sought for a redress of grievances at her hands. A rude lad- 
der was the only means of access afforded to her votaries. But 
within, I doubt not, the Dutch " schepens," held (he scales of 
Justice with all the dignity, impartiality and firmness of a 
modern Kent, Story or Marshall. No new Code of practice and 
pleadings embarrassed the client practitioner of those days. The 
legal profession was not yet established here; Vander Donck, the 
first lawyer, having been prohibited from practising, except to 
" give advice," on the ground that there was no other lawyer in 
the colonic to oppose him, as an advocate in the trial of causes. 
In 1656, a part of New Netherland was purchased of the Am- 
sterdam chamber, by the city of Amsterdam, for 700,000 guil- 
ders; but this purchase did not affect any part of Beaverswyck. 
In 1659, delegates were sent from Fort Orange and Rensslaer- 
wyck to cement the peace with the Five Nations. Jeremias Van 
Rensselaer, and Arendt Van Curlear, with others, were delega- 
ted for that purpose. The pipe of peace that was once smoked, on 
the banks of the Normanskill, was re-lighted in the first castle 
of the Mohawks, at Kaghnawage, and the chain of friendship, 
unbroken for sixteen years, was brightened anew by fresh 
pledges of amity, alliance and good will. 



19 

Beaverswyck was the principal centre of the fur trade in North 
America," and this traffic was the chief occupation of the inhab- 
itants; almost every person being a trader. In 1660 the prac- 
tice of sending- "runners" into the country to intercept the 
Indians, before arriving at the Fort, or colonie, prevailed to such 
a ruinous extent, that Director Stuyvesant visited the village to 
correct the evil. Trade was injured, the Indians cheated and 
sometimes robbed, and they had made it a matter of complaint 
to the authorities. Parties ran high on this question in Beavers- 
wyck, and they were styled "Runners" and "Jlnti-Runners." 
These parties seem to have survived to Albany ever since that 
time, and maintained a like contest in various departments of 
business, not always in favor of our good reputation abroad. 
The chiefs of the Stnecas met Stuyvesant at Fort Orange ; the 
inhabitants of the colonie and Beaverswyck attended, the dif- 
ficulties were discussed, and the negotiation conducted with all 
the usual formalities of Indian diplomacy. The "Runner," or as 
it was termed in olden time, "Broker" system was agreed to be 
discontinued; but the repeated re-enactments against it, appear- 
ing for many years afterward in the records of the Common 
Council, prove that it was never entirely destroyed. In 1663, 
a war broke out with the Esopus Indians, which was carried on 
by Director Stuyvesant for several campaigns, very successfully, 
and the Esopus tribe were nearly exterminated. 

The boundaries between New Nctherland and New England, 
had been, from their earliest settlement, a subject of exciting 
controversy between the colonists here, and the mother countries 
at home. Negotiations and petty contests had succeeded each 
other, for almost the whole period of their existence. In 1614, 
Capt. Argal, from Virginia, had attacked the trading house at 
Manhattan, and reduced it to temporary subjection. From 1652 
to 1654, the Dutch and English were engaged in open war at 
home, and Van Tromp had achieved many naval victories. On 
the 12th day of May, 1664, Charles II. granted to his "dearest 
brother James, Duke of York and Albany," a Charter for the 
New Netherland. The original Charter now hangs in the State 
Library in this city. An English force was sent over by the 



20 

Duke, in order to acquire possession of the territory granted to 
him. On the 6th day of September, 1664, New Amsterdam and 
the Fort were surrendered to the English, under Nichols, by 
Stuyvesant, without a struggle, but much against his own incli- 
nation. On the 10th, George Carteret was sent by Governor 
Nichols, to take Fort Orange, which also surrendered without 
resistance, on the 24th day of September. By the terms of capi- 
tulation, the Dutch were to retain all their property and rights 
of citizenship, and become subjects of the Duke of York. The 
Duke, by his Charter, was to have full and absolute power and 
authority, to control, correct, pardon and punish, govern and rule 
his subjects, according to such laws, ordinances and directions, as 
he should establish. The Proprietary government of the Duke 
of York, continued from 1664 to 1685, when the Duke became 
King, and assumed the title of James II., though he still retained, 
even in his royalty, the title of " Supreme Lord and Proprietor 
of the Province of New York and its dependencies." A Code of 
laws was framed called the "Duke's Laws,'" "which prevailed 
until 1691, under which the country was ruled by his agents, 
and colonial governors. We New Yorkers, have oftentimes 
been amused by the extravagant austerity of the Connecticut 
" Blue Laws,'" a few extracts from the " Duke's Laics,'" under 
which our state was governed for nearly thirty years, will show 
that their severity was not without a parallel. 

" Stocks and Pillories" were to be erected in every town. 

It was ordained that the ministers should " pray for the King, 
Queen, Duke of York and the Royal Family." Another law 
was as follows : — 

" If any persons within this Government shall, by direct, ex- 
prest, impious, or presumptuous ways, deny the true God and his 
attributes, he shall be put to death." 

Another — "If any child, or children, above sixteen years of 
age, and of sufficient understanding, shall smite their natural 
Father or Mother, unless thereunto provoked and forct for their 
self preservation or mayming, at the complaint of the said Fa- 
ther or Mother, they being sufficient witnesses thereof, that child 
or those children, so offending, shall be put to death. ,J 



21 

The English, in conquering the country, seemed determined* 
also to conquer its Dutch associations. To Fort Orange was 
given the name of Albany, from the Duke's Scotch title, and 
New Amsterdam was called New York. By way of continuing 
claim from its first discovery by an Englishman, the Mauritius 
river, now assumed the name of Hudson river. The Patroon of 
Rcnsslaerwyck, retained his colonie, with the exception of the 
government and holding courts; it was transformed into a "manor" 
in accordance with English laws and customs. Our city conti- 
nued to receive accessions of settlers, chiefly English, and a few 
from the other American colonies. 

In 1688 it had attained importance enough, in the eyes of 
the British government, to be incorporated as a city; and Peter 
Schuyler and Robert Livingston were commissioned by the in- 
habitants to go to New York, and procure the Charter, which was 
published on their return, " with all y° joy and acclaimation ima- 
ginable." The bounds of the city by this Charter were stated to 
be, on the east, by the Hudson river; on the south, by a line run- 
ning northwest sixteen miles from the north end of Martin Ger- 
ritsen's island, to the Sand-kill; on the north, by a line to be 
drawn from the post set by Governor Stuyvesant near the river, 
running northwest sixteen miles; and on the west, by a straight 
line drawn from the points of the said north and south lines. 
Numerous privileges and immunities were allowed to Albany, as 
an " ancient city;'''' and all land not hitherto granted within the 
chartered limits was given to the corporation, as well as the 
privilege of purchasing from the natives 500 acres at Schaagh- 
tecouge, and 1000 acres at " Tionondoroge" They were also 
allowed to enact laws, and ordinances for the government and 
regulation of the Indian trade. The city held their Indian lands 
for a long period, and derived considerable revenue from their 
tenants : the rent was payable principally in wheat; the minutes 
of the Common Council detail the manner in which it was sold 
at auction by the city. The Common Council, however, had 
repeated controversies with the Five Nations about these lands. 

The Stadt House or State House referred to in the Charter, 



22 

stood on the corner of what is now Hudson street and Broadway, 
on the site of the present Commercial Buildings. Here also were 
the prison, the whippingpost, the stocks and the pillory. The 
courts were held at this place, and continued to be until a late 
period. Within the memory of some of our citizens, the elo- 
quence of Emmet, Burr, Henry and Hamilton, has been displayed 
at this old court-house or City Hall. In 1797, the first session of 
the Legislature in this city was held at this Hall; the building, 
however, must have been reconstructed. 

Albany owes much of the importance, wealth and prosperity 
of its earlier days, to the traffic in furs and peltry with the Indians. 
Being the most important centre of the trade in the country, the 
Five Nations made it their market, and the Canada Indians found 
it of easy access by the river and Lake Champlain. 

The minutes of the Common Council, for nearly a century af- 
ter its incorporation are replete with regulations and ordinances 
for the government of this traffic. Each dwelling house was 
also a trading house, and the upper story was set apart as the 
store-house for furs. Some of the old buildings yet remaining 
in the city, by the iron fixtures in front for drawing up peltry, 
the shape and location of the doors and windows, the gable end 
to the street, &c, give evidence of the semi-dwelling and semi-tra- 
ding house style of architecture, which prevailed at that period, 
and are now the most striking mementoes of the days gone by. 

Kalm, a Swedish naturalist, in his description of Albany in 
1749, charges the Albanians with dishonesty and deceit in their 
commercial intercourse with the Indians, and the accusation is 
sanctioned in a sketch of our history contained in as respec- 
table a periodical as Hunt's Merchants Magazine. The injustice 
of this charge is sufficiently proved by the fact that Albany was 
never attacked by the Indians during the numerous wars which 
occurred during the Dutch and English Dynasties, and that it 
also maintained an almost exclusive monopoly of the Indian 
trade.* 

*Mrs. Grant in her really interesting memoirs which were written at ahout 
the same period with Kalm's visit, records a much more truthful estimate of 
the character of our early citizens, she says : " The very idea of being 
ashamed of any thing that was neither vicious nor indecent never entered the 
head of an Albanian." 



23 

The Farming interest was chiefly connected with the manor 
of Renssekierwyck. The Dutch Burgher was a trader, and en- 
gaged in commercial pursuits. All the vessels for a long time 
plying between New York and Albany, were owned by Albany 
merchants. Zeawant (Seawant) or Wampum, was used instead 
of money, 6 white or 3 black, being equal to one stuiver or pen- 
ny. Beavers were also another medium of exchange, and the liti- 
gation of the courts w r as principally for the collection of Beavers 
alleged to be due, instead of money, as at the present time. 

At the period we take leave of our city, the principal streets 
were Yonkers or Gentlemen's street and Handlears street. The 
former afterwards assumed the name of King, and the latter of 
Court street. They are at present known as State street and 
Broadway. The part of Broadway lately known as North Mar- 
ket street was called subsequent to this period, Brewers street ; 
the parsonage of the old Dutch church was situated on this street 
on the site of the present Bleecker Hall. The streets were not at 
that time paved, though a side walk 8 feet wide was con- 
structed in 1676. From an order of the magistrates of Febru- 
ary 22d, of this year prohibiting the citizens from keeping fodder 
in their dwelling houses, and another of Nov. 22d, ordering 
the inhabitants to keep the streets free from fire wood, coopers 
timber, &c, &c, we are led to believe that the streets were 
still in a rather primitive condition, and that the worthy Dutch 
housewives had not yet established their reputation for neatness 
and cleanliness, or that their voice was not very potent in the 
regulation of these affairs. A few months since, in excavating 
Broadway in front of the Museum, at about one foot below the sur- 
face, the workmen threw up a stratum of old chips, oyster-shells, 
&c, IS inches thick, which were undoubtedly the remains of the 
old wood piles and rubbish that, notwithstanding the repeated 
ordinances of the Common Council, filled the streets in its early 
days, when the fuel was cut in front of the houses, as is com- 
mon in the country. At the time of which we are speaking all 
of that part of the city south of Beaver street, and west of 
Broadway, was owned by the Dutch Church at the corner of 
Yonkers and Handlears streets, and was denominated and used as 
" the Pasture," by which name the lower part of the city is still 



24 

sometimes designated. The streets in this part of the city, Ly- 
•dius, Westerlo, &c, were named after ministers of the old 
Dutch Church. The Stockadoes which served as a defence 
against the Indians had not yet been built, but a semi-stockade 
fence or " picquets : ' were erected, and the city was protected by 
gates. 

The Foxkill and Ruttenkill, then flowed in open currents to the 
river and were crossed by several wooden bridges. The old Docks 
had not yet been built, merchandise was conveyed to the shipping 
in small boats. There were about 150 dwelling houses built which 
were generally covered with tiles and " mured of bricks" in front 
according to an ordinance of the Magistrates enacted in 1676. 
Fort Orange had gone to decay, and a few years before a new 
earthen Fort defended by palisades had been built on the 
" Mount," at the head of Yonkers or State street, on the site of St. 
Peters church, and the street in front of the Geological Rooms. 
The Mount, at this time was nearly as high as the body of the 
church at the present time. The Fort was principally built of 
pine stockades 15 feet high, with four bastions, and besides small 
arms for 40 men, mounted 9 guns and was garrisoned by 150 
men. There were between five and six hundred inhabitants in 
the city, and about one-third of that number in the Manor of 
Rensselaerwyck. 

Thus have we traced the principal events connected with 
Albany, from its foundation as a feeble Fort, and trading 
house, to its incorporation as a city, with peculiarly liberal pri- 
vileges and immunities. Unlike New-York it maintained at all 
times a strict peace and friendship with the Indians, although its 
intercourse with them was more complicated and extended and 
its situation more exposed either to open or secret attacks. 

The treaty of alliance with the Five Nations, ratified in 1618, 
on the banks of the Tawalsantha, or the Normanskill, was sedu- 
lously preserved, unbroken and unviolatcd. Its controversies 
with the Manor of Rensselaerwyck, which at one time threatened 
to make it only a dependency of the Patroon were finally settled 
by the Charter, and its undisputed jurisdiction one mile in width 
and sixteen in length through the centre of the manor, established 
and confirmed. The existence of the city, so far as courts and 



25 

a separate organization were concerned, had been merged in that 
of the colonie until the 10th day of April, 1652, when by Stuyve- 
sant's order a separate jurisdiction was proclaimed. The limits 
and scope of these reminiscences, will not permit a detail of 
the subsequent events connected with our municipal history. 
During the great struggle for National existence, which occurred 
nearly a century afterward, Albany was among the foremost in 
the field, the most persevering in the fight, and the most im- 
poverished by the contest. Gloriously and well did she earn the 
dignity and honor of becoming the favored Capital of the Em- 
pire State. 

For one, I am proud of being an Albanian ; and it is truly with 
harmonious emotions of pleasure and exultation that I look back 
upon our Dutch as well as English origin. He who would con- 
demn the one, or despise the other, is unworthy of such ancestry, 
and libels the memories of both races. The spirit which ani- 
mated the Dutch against Spanish oppression, of which Sydney 
said to Queen Elizabeth, " It is the spirit of God, and is invin- 
cible;" the spirit which flowed in the veins of the Waldenses 
and French Hugenots, and coursed in the blood of the Puritans 
of New England, have met here and commingled; and Albanians 
must be forgetful of their origin, and of their fathers, if they 
ever prove recreant to Right and Justice, or Civil and Religious 
Freedom. 




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